No current test results from independent labs. Firewall no longer includes application control.

Bottom Line

One subscription gives you unlimited licenses to protect all your Macs with McAfee AntiVirus Plus, and your Windows, Android, and iOS devices, too, and it aces our phishing protection test.

While Macs aren't quite as malware-prone as Windows boxes, they do get hit with Trojans, ransomware, and other malware. Security companies handle macOS antivirus protection in a variety of ways. Some just offer a Mac-specific antivirus tool. Others include Mac protection in a cross-platform suite. McAfee is unusual in that all the security products, from antivirus all the way up to feature-packed mega-suite, are cross-platform. Subscribing to McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac) means getting protection for every macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS device in your household.

As with many cross-platform security products, McAfee starts the installation process online. You log in or create your account, enter your registration code, and download to your Mac. During the process, you receive a serial number. Save it. If you must reinstall the software on this same device you'll need that number, not the registration code.

During installation, McAfee offers a Virus Protection Pledge. This pledge means that if malware gets past an existing McAfee installation, McAfee's trained experts will remotely remediate the problem. Virus removal service normally costs $89.95, so this is a good deal. If the experts can't fix the problem, McAfee refunds your purchase. You must sign up for automatic subscription renewal to get this pledge, but that seems reasonable.

This product hasn't yet moved to a 64-bit code base, so when you install it, you get a warning that it's "not optimized for your Mac." Just click the warning away; it's harmless. McAfee's developers are working on switching to 64-bit, however, because eventually macOS won't support 32-bit programs.

As noted, your license lets you install McAfee on your Windows devices, as well as your iOS and Android devices. Please see my review of McAfee AntiVirus Plus for details on what you get with the other platforms. Briefly, the Windows edition is loaded with features not found on the Mac, the Android edition offers both antivirus and antitheft, and the iOS edition (as expected) is relatively feature-limited.

The Windows-facing products got a user-interface makeover last year, going from a green-tinted collection of large rectangular panels to a blue-tinted layout with a menu across the top. With the current edition, the macOS product gets that same makeover, so it looks extremely similar. The only major difference is that McAfee on the Mac doesn't have all the features of the Windows edition.

Pricing and OS Support

As noted, you can use your $59.99 per year subscription to install McAfee protection on every macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS device you own. Norton is also cross-platform, supporting macOS, Windows, and Android, but your $89.99 per year Norton subscription gets you five licenses, not an unlimited number. You pay $29.95 for ClamXAV (for Mac) just once, which lets you install it on all of the Macs in your household.

Bitdefender, ESET, Malwarebytes, and Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac all cost $59.99 per year for three installations, compared with unlimited licenses for McAfee. A three-license ProtectWorks subscription cost a bit less, $44.95 per year. Of course, you can also get antivirus protection for your Mac with zero cash outlay by choosing Avira or Sophos Home, both of which are free.

Like Malwarebytes, McAfee requires a fairly recent operating system, 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher. Norton's support for the current macOS and the two previous versions means it has the same requirement, at least until macOS Mojave arrives. For those who, for one reason or another, run an old operating system, ClamXAV, ESET, or ProtectWorks AntiVirus (for Mac) may be a better choice, with support back to Snow Leopard (10.6).

No Results From Antivirus Labs

The team of researchers and testers at an independent antivirus testing lab can throw a lot of resources at the task of determining the efficacy of an antivirus tool. I follow four such labs for my Windows antivirus reviews; just two of them release regular reports on Mac antivirus, however. Furthermore, since my hands-on testing setup, developed over a period of years, is mostly Windows-based, those two sets of lab results are even more important to my Mac antivirus reviews.

When I first evaluated McAfee's Mac product, it had certification from AV-Comparatives, with 100 percent detection of Mac malware and 94 percent detection of Windows malware, but next time around it wasn't tested. Alas, McAfee still doesn't appear in the test results from this lab. Nor was it included in test reports from AV-Test Institute. Malwarebytes for Mac Premium also doesn't appear in test results from either lab. My contacts at that company explained that their detection techniques just aren't suited to the simple tests these labs perform, so they don't submit the product. AVG, ClamXAV, ESET, ProtectWorks, and Sophos also lack recent results available.

If you want to see top lab test results, look to Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, Intego, or Trend Micro. All earned top scores from both labs. Kaspersky came close, missing out by one-half point from AV-Test.

Scans and Schedules

I don't have a collection of macOS malware, so I challenged McAfee to clean up a USB drive containing the samples I use for Windows antivirus testing. My collection runs the gamut from barely risky potentially unwanted applications, or PUAs, to pernicious ransomware. Last time around, McAfee only removed 25 percent of the Windows samples. This time it did much better, wiping out 72 percent.

Most of the Mac antivirus utilities I've evaluated offer two kinds of scans, a quick scan that looks for active malware and checks the most likely areas for infestation, and a full scan that covers your entire computer. McAfee sticks with the full scan, along with the custom scan I mentioned. On the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch that I use for testing, McAfee's full scan finished in 39 minutes. I observed that while the full scan displays what looks like a progress bar, it isn't. The only indication of progress is the ever-climbing number of items scanned.

McAfee's time for a full scan is slower than the current average of 24 minutes, but still not bad. However, Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (for Mac) did the job in just two minutes. Malwarebytes eschews the full scan concept entirely, and its quick scan took just 30 seconds to run.

Like ESET, Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac, and a few others, McAfee schedules a weekly full scan. If you don't do anything, you'll still get a regular full scan. You can turn off scheduled scanning, or change it to daily or monthly, but you can't add multiple scheduled scans.

Phishing Protection Goes From Flop to Phenom

If you're an evil web designer rather than an evil code-monkey, phishing is just the crime for you. All you need to do is create a website that perfectly mimics a sensitive site, and disseminate links to that site. When an unsuspecting user logs in to your fake site, you grab the credentials and use them to, say, log into the victim's bank and transfer funds.

At the time of my previous review, McAfee's SiteAdvisor plug-in for Safari simply did not work. The removal of a feature called NPAPI in macOS Safari broke it. With the current edition, SiteAdvisor is back, and it's better than ever.

For my Windows antiphishing tests, I use a small utility that lets me launch a suspected phishing URL and click a button to indicate the product blocked it, the product missed it, or it wasn't a proper phishing fraud after all. I run the same utility, launching the same collection of URLs, against the phishing protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. On the Mac, it's more of a manual process, alas. I tested the Windows and macOS editions simultaneously.

The two editions didn't behave identically. For the most part, this involved the Windows edition blocking a page that turned out not to be a true phishing fraud, while the macOS edition didn't. But the two worked in lockstep on the verified frauds, both detecting and blocking 100 percent of them. Kaspersky recently became the first product to achieve 100 percent in this test; McAfee joins it at the top.

It's worth noting that for many companies the macOS and Windows versions don't track so closely. Norton has long performed well in this test, but Symantec Norton Security Deluxe (for Mac) didn't perform nearly as well. And where Kaspersky managed 100 percent protection on Windows, its macOS edition only blocked 84 percent.

Firewall Bonus

A typical personal firewall performs two tasks. First, it guards against attack by outside agencies. Second, it manages network permissions to make sure local programs don't misuse the network. McAfee used to handle both tasks, but the Application Control component is no longer present. My contact at McAfee explained "This was a business decision, based on usage relative to the cost of maintenance."

Like the similar firewall in Intego Mac Internet Security X9, McAfee asks you to identify each network you join as Public, Home, or Work. On a public network, the firewall allows all outgoing traffic but blocks unsolicited incoming traffic. If you flag the network as Home or Work, it allows unsolicited incoming traffic from within the local network. Simple!

If you're a total network wizard, you can click Manage Rules in the firewall's settings dialog. But even for me, the dialog that lets you create custom firewall rules is daunting. Most users shouldn't touch it.

Doing Better

It's excellent that McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac) covers every Mac you own with a single subscription, and also covers all your devices that run on other platforms. In our antiphishing testing, it blocked every single fraudulent website. But we'd still be happier with some scores from the independent antivirus testing labs.

If you need lab-approved straight antivirus protection for your Mac, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is an Editors' Choice. Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, also an Editors' Choice, is a full security suite that's packed with many more features than just protection against malware.

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About the Author

Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted b... See Full Bio

McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac)...

McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac)

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